Participation in the competition is based on cocoa rather than processed chocolate, the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) can standardize the chocolate making process and judging can focus on the quality of the cocoa.

For the International Cocoa Awards, cocoa producing countries are invited to submit well-prepared fermented and dried bean samples, which reflect genetic and geographic origins of their regions.

These are processed into liquor for evaluation by six sensory analysis experts, who select the 50 best samples, which are then processed into chocolates. These samples are evaluated by 33 expert jury members, including professional chocolatiers and sensory evaluation experts.

Carter is self-described as thirty-three-and-a-half years old and his thirty-three-and-a-half years birthday is always on March 3. Carter characteristically avoids pronouns, referring to himself in the third person (e.g. "Carter has a question" rather than, "I have a question"). One day [in 1984], Carter, raised himself up and from that day forward we could all read what Carter writes.